Today, at Family Mass we often have “visitors” from the Bible. Angel Gabriel visited us today. He wasn’t the Halleluia singing, chorus-surrounded, light-beaming angel we typically see in the Bible. Instead, the actor was a messenger with attitude, personalityand humor. So I came home with this image in my mind of the not-so-typical angel (still in search for the perfect Holiday image.) Also I recalled a Christmas book I loved reading to my daughter when she was a toddler where Angel Gabriel was characterized as this ordinary, imperfect messenger. He had tattered wings and holes in his shoes.

Both of these images reminded me that we are imperfect beings. That being our true best means celebrating our gifts, our personality, and not striving for the perfect storybook image or abstract persona of whom we think we should be.

So I’m not sure if this is my physical escape from the self-inflicted perfection struggle, but I find I am REALLY drawn to imperfections in art, (even though I don’t always paint that way). I love imperfect line quality, exposed underpainting, free form, elongation, unusual color choice. It feels more alive and takes on its own personality, has freedom.

So for today’s illo, I took this image of Gabriel, this ordinary angel, celebrating himself as a messenger and an imperfect angel –– eating a snack (chocolate, of course), enjoying a little down time before he has to deliver a little message to a girl named Mary.